1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable electronic device and, in particular, to a portable electronic device with a smart air purifier.
2. Description of Related Art
Air pollution may result in adverse health effects, especially in highly polluted areas. Air pollution contains two major components, gases and particles. Both of them can be effectively removed by air purifiers.
In one common prior art approach, an air purifier contains a filter, a fan, and a box. In another common prior art approach, an air purifier contains an ionizer, a fan, and a box.
Different devices are currently offered that provide partial solutions for cleaning air. Such devices are either dedicated to particular use or too large to be adapted for other use. Current air purifiers are mostly large and bulky, often fixed in one place and functions best to its surrounding areas. Therefore, when people moves farther away, most of current air purifier's function is restricted. Moreover, wearing respiratory mask can be burdensome to some human subjects.
In the present invention, the smart air purifier 120 shown in FIG. 1 may have small form-factor, wherein the smart air purifier 120 shown in FIG. 1 of the present invention can be arranged in a portable device for supplying fresh air to the user. In comparison with prior art, such as patent application publication number 2005/0223902 invented by Lovell for a “self-powered, wearable personal air purifier”. As shown in FIG. 21 of Lovell, the form factor of the Personal Air Purifier (PAP) 10 is much larger than that of the present invention. The Personal Air Purifier (PAP) 10 of Lovell can't be embedded in a portable electronic device whereas the smart air puffier purifier 120 can. In addition, Lovell PAP requires the user to wear a face mask which may be less comfortable than the smart air purifier 120 where the user do not have to wear a face mask.
Moreover, in order to use a portable electronic device to provide purified air, China utility model number CN204615902 disclosed a “mobile phone with negative oxygen ion air purification function” in which a negative oxygen ion generator is installed in a mobile phone to generate negative oxygen ions under the control of a mobile phone controller chip for absorbing harmful gas in the air, and China utility model number CN2667815 disclosed a “mobile phone with an air purification function” in which a mini air purification device is additionally provided in a mobile phone for purifying the air. However, such schemes simply miniaturize the ion generator or the air purifier for being installed in a mobile phone to purify air, which may be insufficient in air purification (i.e., it can't be used to filter some gases and particles) and cannot provide purified air to the preferred spot (e.g., the breathing zone) of the user at a controlled flow rate. This results in less efficiency in air purification as compared to the smart air purifier 120.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a portable electronic device with a smart air purifier 120 to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.